Page 67 of Sutton's Shadow

“What does that even mean? Get in the way of what?”

“I finally have a good thing going. Don’t mess it up.”

“Mess what up?” Bethany had no idea what Melanie was talking about. She would not label her time in that group home as good. It wasn’t. Not for any of them. Not even for Mel.

“I have the chance to make something of myself. To finally break free with enough money to go wherever the fuck I want. Stay out of my way, or you’ll be sorry.”

“God, I don’t want to have anything to do with whatever you’re talking about. I just wanted to talk to my friend.”

“Forget about her. She won’t be around for much longer, anyway.”

Bethany’s stomach dropped as an icy trickle of fear spread through her. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Forget I said anything. Just stay away, or you won’t like what happens.” Melanie turned to leave, but Bethany grasped her arm, stopping her.

“What’s going to happen to Lia? Please, Mel, tell me. Is she in danger?”

Melanie scoffed. “Of course not. You know people in foster care get moved around all the time. Look at how many were moved out of the house in the short time you were there.” That was true. Bethany knew that. But there was crap in Melanie’s eyes that told her she was hiding something. She couldn’t imagine what it was.

“Okay,” she stammered, backing off. She had a way to keep in touch with Lia now. If she got moved, Lia would let her know. Melanie pulled her arm from her grasp and stomped away.

Moving more slowly, Bethany made her way back to the parking lot side of the school to wait for Wyatt, her mind racing with a thousand different possibilities of what Melanie could have been suggesting. None of which were good.

Wyattspentmostofthe afternoon debating in his head about who to call about the pictures. He had a contact with the State Department he could trust, but he was unsure if the guy would be able to do anything with the information.

Liam’s teammates were entirely capable of taking down that group. He knew Wade and the others had been trying to get a bead on the ghost guy for a while. They could do more with the photos than anybody else.

Wyatt tightened his fists on the steering wheel, thinking about those images as he drove Bethany home from school. He’d seen some truly horrible things during his time as a Ranger, but nothing as shocking as what Sutton had witnessed. The atrocities captured in those photographs had his blood boiling with rage. The treatment of those women, especially the young girls, was brutal. Truly evil.

The group needed to be eradicated.

After arriving at home, Bethany went off to her room as usual. Wyatt sighed, watching her go. She looked almost defeated. He knew something was eating at her but couldn’t get her to open up to him, a problem he’d never had with her before. She’d always talked to him, told him everything. Even when all they had were emails while he was overseas. Logically, he knew she was a teenager now and that teenagers were broody, angsty beings, but he still worried. He hoped Sutton would have more luck getting his sister to talk.

One problem at a time. He had no idea how to decipher what was going through the mind of a teenage girl. He’d leave that to Sutton for the time being. But her situation,thathe knew how to handle. Fighting against terrorism, taking down the bad guys, was once his bread and butter. A job he was proud of. If he could help put one more evil man out of commission, he would.

Reaching for his phone, he scrolled through his contacts until he found who he was looking for. Wade picked up after only two rings. “Tin Man! How the hell are you, man?”

“Good, good. How’s it going?”

“Oh, you know, seeing the world on the boss’s dime. Not a bad life.”

Wyatt chuckled. “I bet.”

“What’s up?”

Shit. Now that he had him on the line, he wasn’t sure if he should say anything to him without talking to Sutton about it first. Would she think he overstepped? He wanted to give her some peace of mind and take some of the weight of this off her shoulders. She’d been carrying it around for way too long.

“Have you learned any more about the group in Colombia?” he asked, deciding to test the waters before diving in blind.

Wade growled, his frustration at the lack of progress spilling from the guttural sound. “Unfortunately, not enough. The group is still operating; that’s about the extent of our knowledge.”

“How do you know they’re still out there?”

“There have been several more attacks. More girls stolen away. We think the group is heavily involved in the sex trade. Only a few girls have been recovered, with harrowing stories about being sold to the highest bidder.”

“Shit.”

“You said it. We’re trying to track the auctions, but no luck so far. The Colombian government denies the existence of the group since there are never any credible witnesses. Those few girls are it, and the government is reluctant to acknowledge what they’ve experienced. They call them runaways who got in over their heads.”

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